If he in fact was the person whose bullet hit the girl, I totally agree. This was negligent manslaughter.
I don’t understand why the gun was loaded in the first place. This type of gun isn’t all that stable if loaded for a period of time prior to being used is it?
I would store that gun empty.
Why he had to shoot the gun to clean it is just strange. Perhaps I’m not understanding something as a person who hasn’t owned or shot those guns before.
Normally a muzzle loader gun remains loaded for an entire hunting season, but the percussion cap is removed when it is not in use. At the end of the season the most practical way to unload it is to fire it so it my be cleaned and stored for next year.
“This type of gun isn’t all that stable if loaded for a period of time prior to being used is it?”
Black powder is quite stable. Black powder does not deteriorate over time at all.
Before the cartridge era, circa 1870 or so, it was very common to discharge your muzzle loader in order to clean it. I even have comments that my great-grandfather wrote in his Civil War diary about firing his rifle so that it could be cleaned due to concerns of the powder getting damp in the barrel in humid conditions.
I have been shooting muzzle loaders for over 45 years, pistol, rifle, and shotgun, and firing my flintlock rifle into a dirt burm is the easiest, and safest, way to unload it.
You can leave a gun loaded with black powder for well over a 100 years and it will fire right off with no problem. Very stable powder.